Date of Award
3-17-2020
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
History, MA
First Advisor
Joseph Key
Committee Members
Cherisse Jones-Branch; Ed Salo; Gary Edwards
Call Number
LD 251 .A566t 2019 D45
Abstract
What motivates a person to engage or take part in espionage? Scholars have researched thousands of documents about espionage during the American Revolution, but much of this research remains divided and simplistic. Historians have also examined the Culper Spy Ring, a patriot intelligence gathering network in occupied Long Island and New York. They typically argue how useful the Culper Ring was in assisting rebel efforts. There is social context or a “war of ordeals” in these agent’s lives. Two of these agents, Abraham Woodhull and Robert Townsend, left a trail of their motivations. Letters reveal that both were motivated by personal, political, and economic factors. They became spies because their ordeals ignited Whig ideology. Whigs supported American independence. Tories supported the Crown (King George III). Familial and political connections reinforced these ideals. Motivations of Culper spies are ignored because they do not fit traditional essentialist interpretations of the American Revolution.
Rights Management
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
DeFord, Kelsey Samantha, "A Tale of Two Culpers: Social Context of Revolutionary Espionage" (2020). Student Theses and Dissertations. 434.
https://arch.astate.edu/all-etd/434
